The IBT Freight Division has given the green light to YRC to install front-facing cameras in all tractors to record events such as swerves, speeding, and hard braking. YRC has agreed to not use the recordings for discipline; only to “protect” drivers.

Freightliner Trucks has received the first license in the United States for an autonomous-driving truck to operate on public highways from Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval.

The Freightliner Inspiration was previewed for the media at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway on May 5, an occasion Sandoval hailed as “a historic day in the areas of transportation and innovation” and a “monumental day for the human race.”

The truck was partially camouflaged at the afternoon event, with a full unveiling taking place in a spectacular evening ceremony at Hoover Dam that included a video presentation on the wall of the dam and the arrival of Inspiration Truck itself, driving across the top of the dam.

The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear appeal of rulings that upheld a California law that requires employers to provide meal breaks to workers.

Penske Logistics was asking the court to overturn decisions by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, based in San Francisco, that said the companies must abide by the state law.

The second case involved Vitran Express, a Canadian carrier. In both cases, drivers were the plaintiffs. The Supreme Court announced May 4 its decision to reject the appeals.

The high court’s decision means that the circuit court decision stands.

The meal-break law requires employers to provide a “duty-free” 30-minute meal break for employees who work more than five hours a day.

The law also requires a second “duty free” 30-minute meal break for those who work more than 10 hours a day.

Lawyers for the logistics company, a division of Penske Truck Leasing Co., had argued that federal law governing trucking companies pre-empted state laws.

The trucking company law is contained in the Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act of 1994, which provides that a state “may not enact or enforce a law . . . related to a price, route or service of any motor carrier with respect to transportation of property.”

The plaintiffs in the original lawsuit against Penske represented a certified class of 349 delivery truck drivers. They work on an account Penske has that services Whirlpool appliances.

According to court documents, the drivers delive products in California and are on the job more than 10 hours a day.

The so-called driver shortage is taking its toll on volume growth and further heightening the need for pricing discipline, according to the president of the third largest transportation and logistics company in America.

“The tight driver market is limiting our ability to fully seat our fleet,” said Con-way President and CEO Douglas Stotlar during in a statement during last week’s first-quarter earnings announcement.

Revenue at the Michigan-based firm was up 0.9 percent year-over-year in the first quarter, at $855.6 million. Operating income, likewise, was up at $37.4 million, more than double the $18.6 million the company posted in the first quarter of 2014. Revenue per hundredweight, or yield, increased 3.6 percent in the first quarter year-over-year.

Net income, however, dropped 7.8 percent year-over-year to $12.9 million. Daily tonnage, likewise, was down 1.4 percent year-over-year, the company said during an earnings call last week.

Company executives said a dwindling workforce and the higher wages it now takes to convince drivers to stay in the business have cut into profits.

Aging drivers, tougher government regulations and waning interest in the industry among younger Americans have fueled an exodus of sorts from the trucking sector. Driver turnover rates — the rate of drivers changing companies or leaving the industry altogether — was as high as 90 percent in 2014, according to a report from the American Trucking Association released earlier this year. And the problem is only growing.

“The driver shortage — which we now estimate to be between 35,000 to 40,000 drivers — is getting more pervasive," Bob Costello, ATA chief economist, said in a statement.

Trucking firms have to had to amp up their benefits, salaries and incentives in order to keep drivers in seats, as well as drive up prices in order to remain in the black.

According to Con-way’s Stotlar, the results from early efforts have been encouraging. Despite increasing drivers’ wages and benefits in the first quarter of 2015, Con-way still managed to pull in an operating profit.

“We were encouraged with early results from innovative, new recruiting efforts to bring more drivers into our company — and incent them to stay,” Stotlar said.

At the same time however, the company also benefited from lower operating and fuel costs and higher prices, which offset some of the damage from inclement winter weather and sluggish volume growth.

“Strong cost controls coupled with improved pricing were largely responsible for the increased operating income,” the company said.

Since joining the company in 2011, the Overland Park-based less-than-truckload carrier has come a long way. It has dodged bankruptcy and default fears, reorganized its labor agreement with its union employees and reached a new debt agreement that will allow the company to focus on doing business. With two straight profitable quarters under its belt, YRC is feeling better in 2015 and attracting new investors.

As the U.S. heads toward what some economists consider “full employment,” trucking companies tracked by the Labor Department hired an additional 2,600 workers in February, pushing the monthly JOC.com Trucking Employment Index reading up to 99.9.

That means the more than 100,000 motor carriers surveyed by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics for its monthly U.S. employment situation report are only one-tenth of a percentage point shy of their peak pre-recession employment level, last reached in May 2007.

The prospect of near-full employment, a new employment peak in trucking and more good paying jobs in construction and other industries that vie with trucking for workers will keep upward pressure on driver wages and the truck rates shippers pay in 2015.

The February Trucking Employment Index rose 0.1 percentage points from January, when the reading was 99.8, according to revised monthly data from the BLS. The index reading for February 2013 was 96.4. That indicates an annualized growth rate in trucking employment last month of 3.5 percent, the same as in January and the highest rate since late 2012. That year, the growth rate averaged 3.8 percent and was 4 percent or higher in four months.

The for-hire trucking industry nearly doubled its hiring rate in 2014, expanding payroll by 46,000 jobs, compared with 24,900 in 2013, when the U.S. economy was stuck in a “soft patch.” The for-hire carriers tracked by the Labor Department agency shed 218,500 jobs from March 2007 through March 2010, and added 207,400 jobs from that date through 2014.

The average monthly increase in trucking employment, calculated from the BLS data, rose from 2,075 workers in 2013 to 3,833 employees last year, an 85 percent increase that likely reflects strong recruiting efforts and higher pay. The carriers tracked by the BLS added more than 4,000 jobs in eight out of 12 months last year, compared with four months in 2013.

At the same time, trucking companies say they are short by at least 30,000 drivers, while running at close to full utilization — more than 95 percent. That’s a sign demand for trucking capacity outstrips supply as the U.S. economy expands at an accelerated pace.

Trucking’s latest employment gains came as the U.S. economy added 295,000 nonfarm jobs in February, driving the national unemployment rate down to 5.5 percent. That’s the lowest unemployment rate since the recession ended in 2009. The U.S. has added more than 200,000 jobs per month for 12 straight months now, the best hiring rate in the U.S. since the mid-1990s, according to BLS data. Transportation and warehousing businesses accounted for 18,500 new jobs in February, the seasonally adjusted payroll data show.

Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal believe the U.S. will hit “full employment” — the point where the economy is using all available labor — late this year, as the national unemployment rate drops toward 5.1 percent. The U.S. Federal Reserve considers an unemployment rate between 5.2 and 5.5 percent to be “normal,” The newspaper reported.

At the same time, there were 5 million available jobs on Jan. 31, the highest level of job openings since 2001, according to BLS data. That includes 205,000 openings in transportation, warehousing and utilities, the federal agency said.

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